Bonfire
by Nssheepster
Summary: What if the Kyuubi actually WAS dead? Where did Naruto get those marks then? Why would he be hated if the cover story was the real truth?


Naruto smirked oddly as Neji's "fate" rant finished. "Neji, do you really think you're the only person who's been persecuted unjustly?" Neji scoffed, but Naruto continued on, still with that odd smirk. "Some years ago, our village was attacked by the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Our village, quite proudly, proclaims that the damage caused by the beast caused no civilain casualties. This is true... Technically.

That night, there were eighteen children born. Of those eighteen, thirteen were premature births. The sheer presence of the beast, and its natural killing intent, forced their mothers' bodies into a panic, causing them to give birth early... But without the protection afforded by their mothers' flesh, the children were fully exposed to that malefic presecence. All thirteen died within ten minutes of being born. The remaining five were all expected to be born sometime during that week. We'll never really know if their births were forced or not.

Of those five, four of them died within a half hour of being born... Followed not soon after by their mothers. The fifth, however... The fifth, was the only child of the last member of a famous clan, a clan that had been specifically eraditcated, not for their bloodline, but instead for all the side effects of their bloodline. It was a minor, passive bloodline, fairly unimpressive on the face of it, but one that the child inherited in full. All the bloodline really did, was cause the bearer's body to use their chakra to heal themselves. If the bearer didn't have the chakra to do so, the bloodline forced them to absorb chakra from outside their body to perform the needed healing, though only in life or death situations. The next morning, it was discovered that that last clan heir had pushed herself too far, using her chakra both to heal the wounds from a hard birth, and to shield her child as best she could. Her body had attempted to draw in the chakra from the atmosphere... Only to find that the only chakra around was the beast's. She died of internal bleeding, chakra exhaustion, and chakra poisoning, along with an acute collapse of all of her chakra coils at roughly the same time. Her child, however... Her child had nearly died from the beast's prescence. Finding itself with no chakra, it too drew on the chakra around it... But a child cannot suffer chakra poisoning until they have chakra _to_ poison, rougly three days after birth. When the nurses checked on the child the next morning, they panicked, and attempted to kill the child... For during the night, the child had developed three whiskers marks on each cheek."

In the stands, Sakura and Ino gasped as one, covering their mouths in shock. Shino, Shikamaru, and Choji frowned, realizing only now what is was they had missed. Hinata sniffed, trying to hold in her tears; Of all his contemporaries, only Hinata had known why he was hated. In the arena... Neji lost his confident smile.

"The Hokage did his best to keep me safe. He forcibly recalled Tsunade, who confirmed that the chakra had had no lasting effects on me, besides the whiskers. He had the Hyuga and Uchia check me over with their eyes as well. And yet, no matter what he told people, no matter how he tried to prove that I wasn't 'The Kyuubi Reborn', as the people saw me... They never listened, instead believing that I was controlling him with 'daemonic powers', that I was merely weakened and attempting to regain my evil might. When he was forced to break up the third mob that was attempting to have me executed, the Hokage put a law in place, forbidding anyone from telling the younger generation their nonsense. Of course, he could hardly prevent parents from making their hatred clear, so no child would go near me, regardless. Unfortunately, since so little is really known about the nine Bijuu, and even less about how the Yondiame killed the beast... It wasn't just civilians that saw me as a demon. Some years ago, my standard ANBU guard was forced to leave the village on a mission. By the time the mission was complete, it was known to have been a falsehood, designed only to force him away from me. The replacement guard, unbeknownst to the Hokage, was one of those who believed I needed to die... So on my sixth birthday, he gathered a mob of his own. The civilian council members, all in on the plan, called the Hokage into an emergency meeting, managing to keep him occupied for three full hours before he caught on and found out what they had done. For you see, without a guard, and without the Hokage to keep an eye on me... The villagers had tied me to a stake in the town's square and built a bonfire around me, attempting to burn me alive. They failed, of course, clearly, and everyone involved was executed... They didn't live long enough to realize exactly what they had really done."

Neji frowned, not understanding where this was going.

"Now that we're aiming to be chunin, most of us will be starting on elemental manipulation, Neji. When you are instructed on the matter, you will be told that, while all villages do it a bit differently, there are always two stages to the training. One, serving to build familiarity and fine control, and a second, serving to train you in releasing large amounts of elemental chakra without harming yourself or losing control of it.

This is a well-intentioned lie, meant to keep you and others alive. There is a third stage for each element, a stage that never varies, and is terribly dangerous. Out of every ten thousand ninja who attempt the third stage of elemental manipulation training, only one will survive... With one key exception. An Uzumaki will ALWAYS survive. The side effects I mentioned earlier? Because of the Uzumaki bloodline, Uzumaki children are effectively exercising their chakra whenever they receive an injury of any kind... Including, for example, malnutrition. Which is why Uzumakis were so famously fond of ramen... It's delicious, and they CAN, in fact, eat it for every meal and end upcoming off the better for it, as the dietary issues are effectively serving as chakra training. When you combine this constant exercise with a greater grasp of elemental chakra than any other ninja could hope for... You have the world's most terrifying ninjutsu specialists, bar absolutely none."

Naruto stood a little straighter, his smirk stretching, growing almost... Feral, in appearence.

"The third stage of elemental manipulation training is to forcibly become one with your element. A wind user, for example, must survive in the midst of a tornado or a sand storm, with nothing but their control of wind chakra to sustain them. It's that test that caused Baki of the Winds to start hiding half his face, as he only has half a face left anymore. A lightning user, in contrast, must stay outside, at a high point, during a thunderstorm, surviving multiple lightning strikes. Anyone with a feel for flames, however, must survive being burned alive for one hour. I survived three hours, Neji. Konoha likes to brag about the Will of Fire. Many assume, foolishly, that our beliefs make us weak, just as you did, when you attempted to kill your own cousin. Just like your clan did, when they abandoned a promising heir simply because she refused to harm her own family simply for training. What people seem to forget... Is that when you scorn a flame, you get burned."

Without pause, without handsigns, without saying a word, Naruto swung his arm to chest level, palm up... And a massive pillar of blue flame shot up from the ground beneath his opponent. As Neji screamed in agony, only a flailing sillhoueete was seen in the pillar. Over the screams and the crackle of flames, Naruto's chakra-enhanced voice could be heard. "Konoha shinobi value their comrades. They would never strike to kill against a comrade, regardless of their personal feelings about them. The moment you did so, you ceased to be a true Konoha shinobi. You ceased to be my comrade. The Hokage could not punish you, as you had technically followed the rules. Your clan is too arrogant to punish you, as they feel that they are somehow above the rest of Konoha, despite their clear weakness. Your sensei, is a good, kind hearted man, a good shinobi, but like many jonin sensei, he made a classic mistake with your teachings, and with your teams teaching. He forgot that his job is not to teach you to fight like a ninja. It's to teach you to BE a Konoha ninja, and there is far more to that than simply fighting. Your team exemplified that oversight. One of you walked into a potentially lethal fight, while holding back... then proceeded to ask permission to stop doing so. Holding back against an unknown opponent is either incredibly arrogant, or incredibly stupid. Lee paid for it with his opponent crippling him, possibly for life. Your other teamate, Tenten, claims to want to be a weapon mistress... Yet when she found herself facing a wind user, chose to use only thrown weapons, and lost easily. Considering her teamates and sensei are all close combat specialists... Her lack of ability in the same area is nonsensical. And then there's you. You, who abandoned your family, the ideals of your village, and with that... Your right to survive this fight with me. Perish for your crimes, Hyuga Neji.. And pray from whatever afterlife you reach that your family learns from your demise."

As the screams died down, a sick, pained look crossed most of the silent audience's faces, the flames dying away to reveal only shards of blackened bone remaining amongst a pile of ashes, with one crisped metal plate atop the pile. In the stands, the Hyuga clan's faces twisted in rage, some for losing a good slave, some for what Naruto had said. Only one was enraged by the death for the loss of Neji as a person. Hyuga Hiashi glared down, murder written all over his face. In the arena, into the echoing silence the proctor said only "Winner, Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha." A moment later, Maito Gai lunged into the arena, his posture and clenched fists belying his clear rage. "That was unneccasarry, Uzumaki-san." Naruto growled. "It was... If you had _done_ your _JOB_! A Konoha shinobi cannot escape punishment for willfully attempting to murder a comrade without just cause. It sets a bad precedent for ALL of us, and makes the entire village look bad while doing it. It would only be worse if he was allowed to attempt to murder a clan heir, and a member of his own family, without punishment. _You_ , as his sensei, could have had him removed from the exams for his actions. You knew that these exams were to show Konoha to potential clients, and you allowed him to continue, despite knowing that no client would want to hire a kin slayer. His clan head, his own uncle! Father to the girl he tried to kill no less, could have easily had him pulled, as punishment for his crime, and to ensure that he would not cost both Konoha and the Hyuga clan their good standing and clientile. He too, refused to do so. If either party had done their jobs appropriately, and punished him for his wrong doing, I would not have had to do so. The Uzumaki have only one punishment for attempting to kill an ally... Successfully killing the criminal in response. There are no exceptions. Uzumaki value family and comrades above all else... We do not suffer a kin slayer to live." Gai's fists clenched harder... Yet he could not bring himself to strike out at the ridiculously dressed genin. He knew he was correct, in his way. Naruto's voice softened. "Survive your failure with him, and teach your other students as you should have from the start. Don't teach them to fight like ninja. Teach them to BE ninja. If your job was only teaching them to fight, everyone would be doing it. The hard part is teaching them when to fight, and when not to fight, and why to fight, and how to avoid a fight altogether, because fighting is always the easiest path, and thus the last one you should take. Do right by them, so that they don't have to end up like him."


End file.
